The rear view of the running boards/frame (above left) on the Bachmann chassis highlights the tight fit on the N scale mecha-
an investment in replacement motive power might have occurred to allow them to phase out the Forney steam lo- comotives and provide an improvement in their operating ratio, as well. A logical choice for purchasing such new-fangled power might have been the likes of Davenport, GE, Plymouth or Brookville, manufacturers who had developed products for the industrial railroad and mining communities and offered their products in a variety of gauges and power sizes. So, my imagination led me to specu- late that the Monson Railroad or the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Rail- road, for examples, might have pur- chased a couple of Plymouth switchers for two-foot gauge running and could run them in tandem or in multiple-unit operation for longer trains or heavier loads. This led me to look at how I might build a pair of locomotives such as this and provide a smooth running and reliable engine pair in the bargain. I had in the past experimented with various N scale locomotives,
both
nism. The Funaro & Camerlengo body casting (above right) re- quires cutting a hole in the back of its cab for clearance.
steam and diesel, and found the Bach- mann MDT Plymouth, which has three axles, to be smooth running, reliable, and able to cruise over insulated frogs without hesitation. The basic mecha- nism, with the body shell removed, is also compact and capable of providing a nice HOn30 conversion power unit. I chose the Plymouth gas mechanical locomotive “flat car load,” basically a dummy locomotive kit made by Funaro & Camerlengo, as the basis for the body. The following paragraphs de- scribe how the Funaro & Camerlengo kit parts were adapted to the Bach- mann MDT mechanism.
Chassis
As with many of my HOn30 locomo- tive kitbash projects, I removed the body shell from the chassis of the N scale mechanism to be used, in this case the Bachmann N scale MDT Ply- mouth locomotive. The couplers were removed from the chassis, leaving the empty coupler boxes. I designed a run- ning board/frame/platform to fit over
the mechanism. It consists of a flat sheet of .040″ thick styrene sheet with a frame made of styrene strips. The frame is made of .10″×.10″ styrene glued to the bottom of the platform, as shown in the accompanying photos. The interior of the platform was cut out to fit over the MDT chassis and rest on its ends. The exterior dimensions of the styrene platform were set to match the width of the Funaro & Camerlengo Plymouth cab with a small amount of ex- cess and long enough that the ends of the Bachmann mechanism just fit inside the styrene frame. This resulted in a size of 58mm long by 27mm wide. (I tend to record dimensions in millimeters once the precise size has been determined since it is easier to duplicate them accu- rately with a metric ruler.)
The end beams (end sills or pilot plates) are .080″×.125″ styrene strip, 27mm long glued to the ends of the run- ning boards with notches cut into their centers to allow the coupler boxes to sit flush with the outside of the end sill. N scale Micro-Trains Line No. 2004-1 cou-
A cab extension (above left) was fabricated from .020″ styrene sheet to cover the motor. In this side view (above right), the assembled
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
platform/chassis and body with its rear extension have just received a coat of gray primer and are now ready for more detailing.
79
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100